Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 31, 1991 TAG: 9103310038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B/1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The state Department of Labor and Industry steadily has been increasing the number of violations it cites and the size of its fines over the past few years.
But two manslaughter cases the agency currently is pursuing in worker deaths in Norfolk and Spotsylvania are the first time since 1985 the agency has pressed criminal charges against an employer.
Carol Amato, state commissioner of labor and industry, will not say that her agency is taking a "get-tough" approach. But she said the department is doing a better job of targeting work sites where accidents and deaths are most likely to occur.
For instance, studies of fatal accidents have shown that a large share of construction fatalities happen at smaller work sites. So the department is doing more inspections at those sites.
Also, Amato said, the agency is trying to work more closely with employers and unions to improve safety training.
Because of Gov. Douglas Wilder's budget slashing, the department lost a $1 million increase. That increase had been promised two years ago by then-Gov. Gerald Baliles' administration, after the Roanoke Times & World-News reported that the agency was handicapped by a lack of money and inspectors.
On top of that loss, the agency has suffered an additional cut of nearly 9 percent in its budget, which now totals $11.3 million.
But Amato said none of that cut came out of enforcement. The agency still has roughly the same number of health and safety inspectors - 50 - that it had before the state's money crunch began.
"Despite the budget cuts, I think we're getting better," she said.
Some critics, however, say Virginia is still not doing enough to protect workers from illness and injury.
"The labor department is the least recognized and most underfunded department in the state," said Daniel G. LeBlanc, state AFL-CIO president
"It has the most important mission in the state - protecting workers and their communities. And . . . we don't have enough inspectors to go around."
The Department of Labor and Industry is responsible for the health and safety of workers in most jobs in Virginia, but it concentrates on the manufacturing and construction industries. It does not monitor the mining, aviation, railway or maritime industries.
Over the second half of the 1980s, the agency found itself investigating a growing number of on-the-job deaths.
From 1981 through 1984, an average of 38 workers died each year in Virginia. In the past six years, the average has jumped to more than 58 per year. Nine workers have died in the first three months of 1991.
In an effort to cut the number of deaths, the labor department launched "Operation Worksafe" last August through October, hitting mostly small companies and writing up more than 2,500 health and safety violations. The department also meted out $692,000 in fines - more than twice the total for the same period in 1989.
Amato said she plans to expand "Operation Worksafe" from May through October this year.
The use of criminal charges is another recent wrinkle for the department. The agency is working with local prosecutors in two cases:
In Norfolk, Dorey Electric Co. faces a misdemeanor charge that it ignored state safety laws in the death of Lester G. Hales II. He was electrocuted May 1 when he cut into a live cable on the runway lights at Norfolk International Airport.
Also, Hales' supervisor, Robert S. Bates, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death. The company, which already has been hit with a $68,000 civil fine by the labor department, faces a penalty of up to $10,000 in the criminal case.
Bates faces up to 10 years in prison.
In Spotsylvania, B&B Steel Erectors Inc. of Ozark, Mo., has been charged with a misdemeanor in the death of a 16-year-old worker, Troy B. Ward. He was killed last April 25 when a warehouse he was helping build collapsed.
The foreman on the job, Eddie D. Buttram, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
The state has levied a $50,000 civil fine on B&B, but the company is contesting the fine and claims the labor department's investigation was carried out improperly.
The last time the labor department tried to prosecute an employer, the criminal case failed. Jerry Womack of Suburban Grading and Utilities was charged in Virginia Beach in the 1985 death of an employee who was smothered when a 10-foot-deep trench caved in.
A General District Court judge dismissed the case, however, saying that Womack relied on his supervisors to make sure the trench was safe.
Amato, the labor commissioner, said there has been no change in the law since then, but the agency has written a detailed policy that sets out when and how the agency will pursue criminal charges.
by CNB